jujuseah

In Singapore, there is a certain hospital that doesn't hire obese nurses. If your BMI is above like 25 or smth, you will not be hired.

I think the best is to be useful.

what? IM everyday? Tell your MD to stop torturing that poor patient.

Ask the doctor to write down in his notes when to restart vanco. Usually they will check vanco trough again before starting. It is important to ask him to restart when and check if bloods are needed! It is annoying because usually we do vanco trough at 6am before giving the morning dose (at 8am) but nurses in singapore are quick to give the antibiotics like 7 am and then we see the vanco trough results, we would be like oooops, we didnt get the results yet muhaha but usually it shld be okay unless they do vanco peak then its different to overdose the patient.

Yeah kinda so we have to pick it up. But learn to say no, that's the point if you don't want to work!

Hate calls like this. But unfortunately we have to pick it up in Singapore if not verbal warnings will be given. We have a call-tree exercise incase of national crisis we have to be activated immediately so any call from the hospital could be the exercise ANYDAY without warning, so we gotta pick it up. If you cant work or you don't want to work, just be honest and speak to them about it. Imagine you are the one calling your colleagues and none of them wants to pick it up...

Or.. kink it and tape it with micropore. works like magic too :)

Our official discharge timing is about 1-2pm. I try to get them out before 1pm so that I don't have to pass over. But sometimes the house officers are seriously slow in discharging pts and causing the ED to be flooded with patients who are waiting for beds. We have really bad bed crunches.

I had dreams about patients saying good bye to me in them and the next day when I returned, they were gone.

you can try googling guide to a newly graduated nurse

This is so true. Even for me a local Singaporean nurse, I can prove her words. It is really sweat and hard work for peanuts. Maybe to some Pinoys the money is good but the living standard is way too high. It is MF tough working in Singapore unless you work in clinics I guess.

Yes there is a chance but a slim chance because you have to work for at least 3-5 years before they want to CONSIDER to send you for RN classes as they need more ENs right now.

Some joker put it in right?

Spike it! Free flow!

Just as long your foam, field and techniques are sterile, put in and taking out the black foam is fine. Like what Shermbrn suggested, to draw the template out with the plastic cover after dropping your black foam on your sterile dressing pack. It is advisable to do that. It is better to be smaller because you can still stuff in smaller pieces. IMHO.

We call it VAC dressing in Singapore.

There are silicon foley catheters right? They last longer.

I had a pt who had Fornier's gangrene. It was really bad. But it wasn't a hospice pt. The wound was very wet, smelly and caused alot of pain to the pain and the gentleman needed to be bed bound because of the pain. What I remembered doing was using Aquacell AG (blue strip with silver elements) it helped to absorb and eliminate odour and slough with the silver. It was a daily dressing even though it should be changed every two days but the wound was rather bad. I flushed the wound using syringes with normal saline (it is actally the best cleaning agent as according to literatures even with infection wound or unless stated by Drs). and dab it dry. Apply the Aquacell AG and cover it with a primary dressing (PRETTY HARD TO DO THAT but you gotta try) We left the area open, meaning no pants or diapers. We created a tent using drawsheets tying one end to the right cot side and to the left cot side to protect privacy. And have a fan to blow around him (In Singapore it is very hot) If he needs to crap, of course we gave him either diapers or bed pan. I

It is reasonable to wear a mask and fix that smell, that's important. If you can, do some debridement, irrigate with Normal saline (unless dr wants a PP wash or chlorohexidine), the smell should be lesser. But I try not to wear a mask because it might be offending to the patient but if you cant do it, you better get a mask!

You are supposed to do it by gravity and never push it unless it is stuck. You have to crush your pills till powder fine (yes it takes time and effort but for a good wash down it is worth it) and stir it with hot(not hot hot but hot enough) water. Check for NG placement, wash clear water down check for patency, kink the tube and pour some water in the 50mls syringe (to cool down the hot meds) and then add in the meds (stirred in hot water) and watch it spiral down. If the meds are (like omeprazole which the order should be changed to nexium which is suitable for NG) stuck, you may do gentle push! (like what else can you do.. you wouldn't want to change the tube.. right?) If not, please try never to do pushing as it is detrimental to stomach over time. Cos pushing in seems like you are impatient and have little love for the patients hahahah

A SRN caring for 200 patients serving medications and she had a medication error and she was up in trial but was acquited with a verbal warning. THEY HAD TO LET HER OFF caring for 200 patients THATS CRAZY! My eyes would have been crossed not mentioning how many million meds one geriatric pt can have.. imagine 200 geri pts. life is f u c k e d up.

find the right spot to the pressure on. (dont mean to sound dirty here )

In these situations, our roles and responsibilities are very very debatable. In Singapore, our drs have handphones instead of pagers. When the pt is in hypoglycemic state, we will call and inform them and ask to give verbal order if he/she cannot be here in 1 minute and usually they get nervous and give verbal order and we will push the D50 40mls and get the dr to sign for it once they are there to review the pt and we usually leave the ampoules around so that they know we have given the right drug (of cos before that it is counter checked with another RN) We must think critically and act accordingly even if it puts our license at risk but there are certain tapes that we try not to cross. I believe as long as our conscience is clear for the things that we do for the pt and that the pt is alive and kicking, i believe my job for the day is done (and girls they wanna have funnn!). We must be assertive, protocol knowlegdable and a teamplayer. We must be more than a nurse!

Some hugs to you but if you had my boss, i quote her, "dont bring your problems to work". Take a day off!

always have a friend on every floor..